Locals stock up on storm supplies

SOMERSWORTH — Laurie Thomas braved the aisles of the Market Basket Thursday afternoon to buy items she may not be able to get when the impending nor’easter strikes the New England region today.

“It’s still friendly and pleasant right now,” she said, clearly having developed a good game plan for hitting the store before the blizzard and before reduced supplies brought out tension in frenzied shoppers.

Shopping carts themselves were a hot commodity at the store as shoppers stocked up on essentials for the snowstorm expected to bury New England in a couple feet starting later today.

“I’ve never seen lines like that,” Thomas, of Rollinsford, said.

Thomas was amazed at the number of people flooding the store, where aisles were running low on bottled water, bread, milk and a plethora of other everyday supplies.

“You wouldn’t believe the people in there,” Barbara Marshall, of Dover, said.

Checkout lines ran from registers all the way around to the bakery and frozen food aisles where exasperated patrons leaned on carts and struck up conversations with shopping associates.

Marshall was filling the back of her Dodge Caravan with bottled water and dry goods.

She said she was just getting the same type of items she purchases every week, but was doing so a day early. And she was hoping meteorologists predicting upward of two feet of snow were very wrong.

“Hopefully that’s just Boston and not us,” she said.

Describing her hometown, she said it normally either gets nothing at all in the way of snow — or a whole lot.

“It’s just a special little town,” she said.

Meanwhile, shoppers inside the store remained hopeful that they would get through their shopping lists and the lines to exit the store with the goods they came for.

As lines continued to form, and seemingly remained stationary while clerks swiped goods as fast as they could from the conveyor belts and into bags, signs of hope were heard throughout.

“I think we can get through,” one shopper shouted to a friend.

“I see a shorter line over here,” another hollered.

Some, however were not as hopeful. A number of “oh my god” exclamations were heard as shoppers rounded corners with their carts.

In the parking lot, at least one customer who had survived the shopping ordeal wondered what all the fuss was about.

Russell Wild was planning on having company for dinner Thursday evening and needed to shop for food regardless of the storm. Knowing the scene might be a hectic one, though, he still debated whether to actually go.

When a neighbor called the Dover resident to warn of the masses already at Market Basket early on Thursday, he decided it was best to get to the store.

He’d received a notice from Cocheco Park managers warning residents that they may be trapped for days, and possibly without power due to the storm.

He wondered, though, was this all really a surprise?

“Hello. This is New Hampshire and it’s winter,” he said.

That was the sentiment he found most comical in all the grocery store shenanigans.

“They have plows. How long do you think you’re going to be trapped?” he asked.

Wild recalled a time in 1982 when he worked in Washington, D.C, and, he said, the county of Arlington, Va., had only one snow plow.

“I had to drive everybody home,” he said.

While he knew the likelihood of New England being hit with an amount of snow not seen in decades was good, he still found humor in the general public’s attitude bordering on panic.